The End
by Reinna
Summary: The end, as seen through Kaze's eyes.  Semiprecluded by Soil.  SPOILER ALERT!


**The End.**

**Summary:** A retelling of the end, as seen through Kaze's eyes.

**Warning:** Spoilers, obviously. The summary should be enough for you to tell, but this is a retelling of the last episode of the anime.

**Note: **Originally going to be the second and final chapter of my other fic, Soil. xD Then…it mutated behind my back. Consider Soil…sort of a prelude. Any reference to 'cries of Soil' or 'Soil screams' is from that fic. It's not absolutely necessary to read it before you read this. **HINT.** **But you might want to for further comprehension. HINT.**

**Disclaimer:** FFU is not mine. Unbelievable, I know.

---

_Dead Silence._

Oddly enough, it was the hush that woke Kaze. The silence he had not had since he first began using the Soil. It had all been taken from him, every last bullet, leaving an odd sort of ache from missing the familiar weight of the row of bullets usually strapped around his hips. Looking down from the bindings that stupid bitch Herba had wound about him, he watched as his nemesis (_nemesis? Was this man still his enemy?_) was pierced through by his own sword after a last ditch effort to fight Chaos. Watched Shiroi Kumo's last gasp of pain as he slumped over his sword, limp and unmoving.

And Chaos laughed.

The entire scene felt vaguely dreamlike and surrealistic- wasn't _he_ the one who was supposed to kill Kumo? And he continued to watch numbly, as the smirking child ordered the pink puppet to drop the remaining Mist bottles of his former enemy into the void, along with his Soil bullets. Heard their faint, distant cries silenced at last. He felt as if he were seeing the entire scene play out from a great distance, as Lisa called to the twins, to their parents and Chaos began the process of absorbing both of the children into itself.

_So…it's over?_

He mulled over that fact for a moment in his head, his body still infused with that empty, echoing calm, trying to decide whether such an ending was a good thing, or a bad th-

The explosion jarred him out of his reverie, followed by a flash of blinding light that left him temporarily blinded. The little wolf-girl (_Lou- her name is Lou_) had arrived alongside Moogle; her blasts reduced all the machinery present in the room into rubble. A nearly tangible wave of heat slammed him back against the wall, and for a moment, he was deaf and blind, left lost and confused in the darkness before a rough grip clamped onto his shoulders, and he instinctively twisted his head to one side to get a glimpse of his- attacker? rescuer?- before remembering that he couldn't see at the moment, so it didn't matter.

Blinking spots from his eyes, Kaze found himself pulled up from behind by a pair of gray paws- Lou. She had already freed him from his bindings and flew him down from the walls of the chamber, setting him carefully upon the ground.

He still felt vaguely disconnected, one part of his mind focusing on the here and now as the other hung there, confused and unsure after Kumo's death.

_He…he was my enemy, wasn't he? Along with Chaos…but he fought for us and there was that last attempt with the Maken…_

He surveyed his surroundings with a detached eye. Chaos's instruments were in ruins, and Herba's binding plant- eaten. Everyone who mattered seemed to be safe and relatively uninjured (_What about Kumo?_ murmured a distant corner of his mind. _Should he matter?_) He nearly stumbled when he landed; the floor was solid underneath his feet, solid unlike the rest of the dreamlike events all around him.

A pulsing red tentacle whipped past him- and a cry of horror, rather than pain- eyes widening as he saw the circle of dark blood already pooling underneath the wolf-girl- and it was that last shock that jerked him out of his reverie. The twins surged forward with a synchronized cry.

"Lou!"

Lisa reached her first, carefully lifting the silver-haired girl onto her lap as the children clustered around her, their cries of distress further feeding the darkness coiling all about them. The girl was already fading, already dying, and as she turned her face toward him, he wondered helplessly why she would profess her love to him, him of all people. She had spent much of her time with them hanging onto him, talking to him. He hadn't known what to do, what to say, to draw her closer or to drive her off. So he had said nothing, and yet she…

"Kaze-sama is always in my eyes… Always…forever and ever…"

So she faded away, and he still had no answer for her. There was a soft hum in the air, and he turned his head, finding it hauntingly familiar…and yet, not. _What?_

Chaos snarled, and flung itself out from the dark void, sprouting a pair of webbed wings. The monster roared its hunger, and once again released its beam of energy-draining light, even as Ai and Yu cried out to him.

"Defeat him!"

"Avenge Lou!"

_Movement._ The Magun stirred on his arm, and he turned toward it in startlement, even as he flung out his arm out in a motion from pure habit.

"Soil! My strength!" And the Magun extended its drill and reformed around his arm. Before him, Chaos chortled and the soft hum behind him grew in volume.

"Hahahaha! What can you do with a gun without bullets?"

Kaze was silent, suddenly awash in memories. _It was the same…the same as last time._

"It's over!" Chaos cried triumphantly, just as-

"Kuroki Kaze!"

The misty white form of a floating Kumo stood in the air before Chaos. The dark stain of red upon his otherwise pristine white clothing stood testament to his wound, but the white-haired man seemed to ignore the injury entirely, raising a single uncapped Mist bottle before his face (_-how did he get that?_).

"This is the Mist of my very soul— I must play it!"

The bottle flew into the sky, and Kumo followed.

"Symphony of the White Cloud!"

And this time, Kaze could hear the Mist summon's call. It _sang_, a single clear note like a crystal bell that vibrated through the air, and for a single endless moment, Kaze vibrated with it.

The beam of light that was both Shiroi Kumo and his summon rocketed toward Chaos, slamming against, _into_ it. Chaos just laughed, even as its form twisted into a caricature of Kumo's graceful, ethereal summons. And over all that, Kumo's words over Chaos's taunting and that soft hum of sound.

"Kuroki Kaze! Hurry- While I'm suppressing it-! "

But he had no bullets! _But last time…I didn't have any either…_

"Kaze-sama…" There were words in the soft resonance behind him, the hum swelling in volume as he finally recognized it for what it was. _Soil!_ "Kaze-sama…use me…" An echo of a memory. Kaze's eyes widened at it- "_Use me…Use my Soil."_

_Aura… so it wasn't…wasn't Kumo…_

And Lou closed her eyes for the last time. Her entire being suffused with light, even as Kaze braced himself for the return of the Soil-screams.

Except not.

He caught the gold-capped bullet almost reflexively, and with a practiced flick of his fingers, sent it into the first chamber of the Magun.

"The light that fills your eyes, Tear Rainbow!"

A melodic hum of devotion and love from the multihued Soil, in contrast with the usual dirges of pain emitted by all his other bullets.

"Alright then- use it! My Soil!" This from Moogle, his partner. There was no time for good-byes as, before his eyes, Moogle transformed himself into another bullet for Kaze.

_For the world. For all living beings._

"The ultimate Soul- Soul Gunmetal!"

Beside Lou, the second Soil bullet sang a deep song of loyalty as it slid in and locked into the gun.

And now… _again…just like before. How did my Soil sound? I don't remember…_

_And finally…_

"I've chosen the Soil for the likes of you!"

One hand pressed to his chest with his eyes closed, he felt, rather than saw, the burst of Soil as a sense of white hot heat within him, neither searing nor painful. Opening his eyes, he stood entranced by the spiral of pure white light that surrounded him.

_One more thing to do…_

"Lisa…" he murmured softly, "fire the Magun…in my place…"

"My life's spiral, Endless White!"

And in some sense, he could feel himself sliding into the Magun, feel his soul being propelled into a twisting dance with the other two, harmonizing and blending with them until they met in a burst of white light, distantly sense himself in their summoned Bahamut as it roared its challenge to the possessed Chaos.

But mostly, he listened. Listened to the call of his own soul.

_Eternity…_

The two creatures wheeled and spiraled into the sky, meeting in a deafening explosion over Gaudium that destroyed the castle, reducing it to so much rubble. And in that meeting, two familiar souls recognized the song of the other's spirit.

"Kuroki…Kaze…"

"Shiroi…Kumo…"

And there was the sensation of falling, falling down and down into the gray.

_Fade out._

---

A/N: _**Not**_ Kaze/Kumo, incidentally, though you can personally interpret it that way. I didn't write it with that in mind. Kaze's thoughts keep on circulating back to Kumo because remember- he's spent the whole series obsessing about killing the man, and considering him his evil arch-nemesis and whatsuch. And now…he's kind of not.

So Kaze feels like he's got the rug pulled out from underneath him, and he's lost one of the main things that have kept him going for this long. Hence, all the confusion.

Also, any screwy stuff in the script is due to the subs that I watched. I'm pretty sure there're some things they mistranslated (like calling Aura 'Amura'…), but as I'm not versed in Japanese, I won't be able to make corrections, and unless they're huge, enormous, plot-ripping sorts of mistranslations, I won't bother changing them. Also, the artful embellishments are my own adding, to make this more interesting.

Much thanks to Feral Phoenix for being an awesome beta!

Reviews win teh internets!


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